The brother of a woman who, together with her 21-month-old daughter, died in an inferno, attributes their deaths to poverty.

That was Peter Mathalise´s reaction during the funeral service of his sister, Amukelani Mathalise, at the weekend. Amukelani Mathalise and her daughter, Tendani, of Tshitomboni outside Thohoyandou, were killed when a fire consumed them while they were clearing an old rondavel whose roof had caved in.

According to several of the community members, the Mathalise incident is "one of those unfortunate burocratic bungles, where deserving members of the community are overlooked when it comes to government services." Ms Mathalise´s name has been on the housing list for some time, but when it came to allocations, Lady Luck always evaded her.

She is part of a family of eight, who were crammed in a two-roomed house with a roof that is completely damaged and which could collapse at any given time. Poverty is at its worst in the family. Community members knew of her plight, but did not do anything to assist her, and she did not have any other option but to provide shelter for herself.

It is alleged the woman and her child did not have a place to sleep after her rondavel had collapsed. Most of her neighbours were lucky and got RDP houses, but her name was not on the list. Ironically, even people who had better houses received government houses, while she was unlucky.

Out of frustration, she bought some cheap poles to renovate the collapsed rondavel and she was busy preparing for it to be rebuilt, when tragedy struck. The mother of the dead woman, unemployed Joyce Khoza-Mathalise, said she was at the back of a rondavel at about 05:00, when she saw big flames. “I decided to investigate what was happening, only to find that the collapsed rondavel was on fire,” she said.

She said she tried to help the two, but the flames were vicious at that stage and she decided to call for help from people at a nearby tavern. She said the people came in their numbers and tried all they could do to save the two, but could not see where the baby was. “They only managed to take the mother through a small window. The baby was consumed by the deadly flames as we watched helplessly. She died a terrible death,“ she said.

The baby was buried last week and the mother was taken to the hospital, where she died later.

The sad brother of the deceased woman, Peter Mathalise, said: “Government failed my sister by not allocating her a house with others. She would not have died, but poverty drove her to an early death,” he said. He said all his sister wanted was shelter for herself and her baby, but she did not live to see her dream materialise.

The local ward councillor, Thina Mbedzi, said the Mathalise tragedy was one of those things that happened when people least expected them to happen. "We knew about her plight, and out of the surplus 48 houses we had in the ward, one was identified for her. It is sad that the house will only be built after her death," she said.